diff --git a/faf/tools/fa/mods.py b/faf/tools/fa/mods.py
index 3ae0457..706ea9a 100644
--- a/faf/tools/fa/mods.py
+++ b/faf/tools/fa/mods.py
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ def parse_mod_info(zip_file_or_folder):
     else:
         raise ValueError("Not a directory nor a file: " + str(zip_file_or_folder))
 
+    lua_data = {k: v for k, v in lua_data.items() if v is not None and v is not ""}
+
     data, errors = ModInfoSchema().load(dict(lua_data))
     if errors:
         raise ValueError(errors)
diff --git a/faf/tools/lua/parse.py b/faf/tools/lua/parse.py
index 3508f9d..f7b04a9 100644
--- a/faf/tools/lua/parse.py
+++ b/faf/tools/lua/parse.py
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 try:
     import lupa
 
-
     def from_lua(lua_code):
         """
         Use Lupa as a parser by actually running the code
@@ -14,18 +13,23 @@ def from_lua(lua_code):
         fa_functions_path = pkg_resources.resource_filename('static', 'lua/fa_functions.lua')
 
         lua = lupa.LuaRuntime()
+        # we don't care about all of the "internal" globals
+        # especially not the ones that contain binary stuff
+        # resulting in UnicodeDecodeError when we try to unfold them
+        default_globals = dict(lua.globals()).keys()
         with open(fa_functions_path, 'r') as fp:
             lua.execute(fp.read())
 
         lua.execute(lua_code)
 
-        def unfold_table(t, seen=None):
+        def unfold_table(t):
             result = {}
             for k, v in t.items():
-                if not lupa.lua_type(v):  # Already a python type
-                    result[k] = v
-                elif lupa.lua_type(v) == 'table':
-                    result[k] = dict(v)
+                if k not in default_globals:
+                    if not lupa.lua_type(v):  # Already a python type
+                        result[k] = v
+                    elif lupa.lua_type(v) == 'table':
+                        result[k] = dict(v)
             return result
 
         return unfold_table(lua.globals())